Holiday - July 2007

It's been over 6 months since my last post so I thought I'd update after my brief vacation. It started Saturday as I drove up to TC. The traffic was light so it was a relatively pleasant drive. I arrived pretty early, around 11. My parents were home and the nieces were about to go to work. So I just hung out in the yard, bought my parents some ice cream. This vacation I was planning on taking my niece Alex with me. We now make it a yearly ritual.

Sunday morning Alex and I departed TC for SH. Soon after we arrived at my place we did a quick trip to the grocery store for our supplies for the week. After that we headed to a festival near by. It was mildly entertaining, but still a bit of a let down.

Monday I set up a campus tour for Alex at a local University. She's interested in going so I thought I'd show her the plusses. I intend to let her stay at my place, pretty much rent free, if she decides to attend. She's a senior in HS this coming year so it still gives her at least 7 months to decide. After the tour and lunch we headed to a local park where we did some kayaking. It was a first for both of us. It was real fun, might have to do it again in the future.

I managed to wake her up pretty early Tuesday so we could depart to Lexington, KY. It was roughly a 5 hour drive and she spent most of it buried in her puzzle book. After checking into our hotel room we quickly departed to go see the Natural Bridge in the Red River Gourge. We dined at a local restaurant which served deep fried pickles. It was a suprisingly good treat to go with a mediocre dinner.

Wednesday we headed to the Horse Park, which was the main reason I chose this sight for our vacation together. She loves horses, and most of all Arabians. To top it off they were having an Arabian competition there for the week. After spending the entire day there we headed off to another local restaurant located on a river. It was very good food there and their specialty of deep fried mild bananna peppers was very good also. But it started to rain so we didn't get to see the surrounding area. The ride back was very scary for Alex and hell to drive, due to the severe Thunderstorms.

Since the rain continued Thursday morning we decided just to head back to SH. But on the way we did stop at the Air Force museum in Dayton. It was my third time there, it changes every time. I don't know how interested she was in this, but at least mildly interested.

Friday we both slept in and went to Dave & Busters for lunch and games. After we did that for a few hours we headed to the park again to ride bikes and see the nature center.

Saturday we drove back to TC. Where she anxiously awaited seeing her friends. My sister managed to show up unexpectedly forcing Alex to sleep on the floor for the night :(

Sadly Sunday I headed back to my condo and cleaned up the place.

It's always so depressing coming back from these vacations, but overall it's worth the time on vacation.